Dr Dean & Dr Essandoh in the Fluoroscopy Imaging Room

Even in a small joint, osteoarthritis can have a big impact on your life if it means you can’t hold a pencil, knit, or engage in other activities that you enjoy or need to do. Having a stiff or sore knee can really impact your quality of life, making it hard to get around. Getting a shot of corticosteroids directly into a sore joint can reduce pain and inflammation quickly and effectively.

Corticosteroids are related to hormones naturally made in your adrenal glands. Corticosteroid injections are often referred to as steroid shots or injections.

Corticosteroid shots relieve inflammation faster and more directly than traditional anti-inflammatory medications taken by mouth. And a single injection doesn’t cause side effects such as stomach upset, which often go along with those drugs. Corticosteroids can also be taken by mouth or intravenously to relieve inflammation throughout the body, but when injected into a joint, their effects -- good and bad -- are mostly limited to that joint.

People feel almost immediate relief after an injection because the corticosteroid is usually mixed with a local anesthetic. Several hours later, the corticosteroid begins to relieve inflammation. The relief usually lasts from several weeks to several months.

Injecting a large joint, such as the hip or in the spine, is more complicated and usually requires imaging to help the doctor guide the needle into the joint.

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About Us

Dr. Samuel Essandoh M.D. had his residency training at the Columbia College of Physicians and surgeons at the Harlem Hospital in New York, NY. He did his fellowship in Pain Management at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan, New York one of the top two cancer centers in the entire United States where he was thought of as one of the best in the field of Pain management.

He holds three board certifications in Pain Management, Internal Medicine and Palliative Medicine.

He has multiple publications to his credit including pain management in cancer survivors and was a content review expert for palliative medicine guidelines when he was working at the Marshfield Clinic, the main competitor of Mayo Clinic in northern Wisconsin.

In 2011 and 2012 he was recognized as one of the top pain management physicians in America by the Prestigious Consumers' Research Council of America because of his dedication to patient care and the recognition from his peers and mentors.

Dr Essandoh is also a full member of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians.